


Not For Human Consumption

by hyperfashionist



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant to end of S3, Free Verse, Gen, Implied Cannibalism, Implied Everything That Is Usually Implied In Canon, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Torture, POV Male Character, Poetry, The Leg You Eat May Be Your Own, There's No Such Thing As A Free Verse, implied Hannigram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 12:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13146480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyperfashionist/pseuds/hyperfashionist
Summary: A gift for EmilyElm. Happy Holidays 2017!





	Not For Human Consumption

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EmilyElm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilyElm/gifts).



I was always against human consumption.  
I was considered quite the crank among my peers.  
They had to muzzle me for a while, I simply wouldn’t shut up about it.  
But you believed me.  
I still appreciate that, not as much as I used to. But enough.  
I convinced him to compromise. You’ll be in no shape to kick his ass now.  
You’ll only be fit for human consumption.

You’re right, it is the lowest form of wit.  
He gets away with things I never could.  
Some things never change.  
I changed.  
This is me, after my changing. Do you see?  
I learned to blend in.  
I trained them all to be more like me. Or more like him, it’s hard to tell.  
Thought I was finally ready for the real world.  
Thought I was finally ready for them - for her.  
But all I learned was how to unlearn,  
all I unlearned was to unknow what I knew.  
I learned to accept the way the world works.  
I learned not to be such a bore at parties.

So now here we are! Back on the bright side.  
Catch a falling star, land back in the same spot.  
It’s gravity that ain’t what it used to be.  
There’s a trick to living antiparallel:  
            neutral objects can’t resist _any_ force,  
            positive or negative, it’s all the same.

He’s been some time already in the kitchen,  
            do start without him, you have my permission,  
the past few days have taken their toll  
(among other things) - would you care for some oysters?  
Whoops-a-daisy, lost your fork?  
Is _this_ your fork? My, my, you are naughty.  
I’ll keep your secret. Let me top that up for you.  
A G-Max ‘04 Riesling by Weingut Keller  
            …gulping it isn’t the best way to enjoy it.

You can’t believe a word they say,  
they don’t want what they say they want,  
they don’t believe what they say they know.  
They won’t be able to imagine life without him.  
They’ll feel like part of them is gone, too.  
Some of them feel like that already.  
An ear here, a limb there.  
We’re finally making an honest woman of you.

You’ll finally understand the words you parrot.  
You’ll even be capable of forming your own phrases!  
Alex, eat your heart out. A scientific breakthrough,  
            if they believe you.  
Ha! The Tattle-Crime boards, I can see it now.  
Contorting to fit their legs in the oven,  
            Googling appendectomies in Antarctica,  
insisting it’s OOC for you to wait for him  
like Miss Havisham, day after agonizing day.

                                                            Well.  
                                                I’ll believe you.  
            (For what that’s worth.)

I’ll keep your secret.  
Let me top that up for you  
…gulping it isn’t the best way to enjoy it.  
A complex flavor like this, you don’t knock it back all at once.  
(I’d work in a pun about this wine having legs, but there are standards.)  
A unity of contrasts, I don’t know how it does it.  
All that exotic fruit, but briny and deep.

            If you hold it up to the light - there - you can see the future.

                                                                                                Do you see?

From now on, that’s where you live: at the bottom of the glass.


End file.
